Archive for category Noodles

I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but I LOOOOVE eggs. Anything tastes better with eggs don’t you think? Anyway, I got some egg noodles from my Number 1 Fan’s mom (THANKS Number 1 Fan’s mom!!!), so I decided to make omusoba with the noodles. In case you’re wondering what “omusoba” is, it’s “omelette soba,” which means soba wrapped in omelette. Japanese call it “omu-soba.” Another version would be “omurice.” I think omurice comes before omusoba… but who knows!

Anyways, I used egg noodles instead of soba for this dish. Feel free to substitute it with soba.

5) In another frying pan, pour in the 1/2 of the egg mixture. When the egg is ready, put the noodles in the centre, then wrap the egg around the noodles. Repeat for the remaining half of the egg mixture.

Let’s face it, we all get lazy sometimes. When I wanna eat something hot and don’t wanna spend too much time to prepare, I make noodles. You just boil water, put the noodles in and wait for it to soften. Viola! It’s done. What’s the quickest of the quickest noodles to cook? Of course it’d be instant noodles! What’s faster than “instant”? 😛

Last time when I went to H-Mart, I saw that the Korean noodles were on sale, so I bought 4 different flavours of instant noodles. One of them was Chapagetti. To be honest, the first time I had it (about 10 years ago?), I didn’t like it that much. I think it was because the texture of the noodles was very different from the kind that I used to have, which was a lot skinnier. As time went, I actually started to like the texture of chapaghetti more – the noodles are thicker and chewier, and it feels like it fills you up more. If you have tried the spicy Nong Shim Shin Ramyun, the chapagetti noodles is the same as the Shin Ramyun noodles.

Oh forgot to mention, you don’t serve the chapagetti in soup, rather, you serve the noodles dry. The cooking method is pretty much the same as any other types of instant noodles, except you drain the water completely when the noodles are done, and then you put a little bit of water, the packaged oil and soup base in and mix everything together. If you want to impress people and make it not look like instant noodles, you can add some veggies and meat on top.

I have always loved this dish. I know it is super easy to make, but… I could never seem to find the “flat noodles” that are used in this dish. The flat noodles used in this dish is not the regular rice flat noodles. Rice flat noodles is not chewy, but this flat noodles is a little bit chewy. Later I found out that it’s actually made out of green beans, which is the same ingredient as the vermicelli. Then I thought of it… YEAH! they do have the same texture! It’s just that one is thin and the other one is flat.

Back to my flat noodle hunting story. I have been to a few different T&Ts at different time and asked if they carry the flat noodles. Many times the (male) staff didn’t seem to know what I was asking for, or they just said what’s on the shelf is what they have. Not until a few weeks ago… while I was just cruising through the aisles… I SAW THE FLAT NOODLES!!! I was SUPER EXCITED! Of course I got a pack immediately. So T&T DO carry the flat noodles but… maybe they go out of stock really soon, that’s why I never seem to be able to find them before.

With the flat noodles I found at T&T, I made the shredded chicken with flat noodles. It’s a pretty “free-style” dish.

Btw… in case you didn’t know… this is an appetizer dish, not a main dish! But of course you can have it for you main course! 🙂

Introduction:
I had leftover picked Szechwan veggie, and I don’t know what to do with it. Hmm… so I looked into the freezer… and I found some ground pork. I actually wanted to make steam pork with pickled Szechwan veggies, but since steaming the meat requires marinading, which I suck at. Then I decided to stir fry the pickled veggie and pork with vermicelli.

2) Slice the pickled Szechwan veggie into thin slices. OR you can buy those that come pre-sliced.

3) Heat up a frying pan, add in oil. When the oil is hot, put in the garlic, ginger and pickled Szechwan veggies. Then add in the ground pork. When the pork is half done, add in the vermicelli as well.

4) Put the sugar, sesame oil and chili oil in. Stir well.

Results:

Discussions:
1) I didn’t write down the measurement… coz I randomly pour in the stuff. I don’t know how much I put in. But in the end, it tasted well! 🙂

2) I didn’t put in any soy sauce, coz I think that th pickled veggis is salty enough already. If you like, you can add some in.

3) I had it as a side dish instead of a main dish. If you want it to be a main dish, just put more vermicelli in. Oh btw, it tastes really well with rice! 🙂

Introduction:
Ok… I have to be honest here… the main “experiment” here is NOT the cold noodles, but the Sesame Sauce. I saw the Sesame Sauce recipe in a Japanese magazine, and… since I really like the taste of sesame, I decided to give it a try. Of course, you can’t just eat sesame sauce by itself, so I thought, Ok, maybe I’ll try it with cold noodles.

Cold noodles:
1) Boil noodles according to the package. When it cooked, run the noodles under cold water. Arrange on a plate.

2) Devein shrimp. Boil the shrimp until cooked. Cut the shrimp in half.

3) Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Pan fry it until cooked.

4) When the egg is cool enough for you to touch. Thinly slice the egg.

4) Arrange the shrimp, eggs, carrots and cuccumber on noodles.

Results:

Cold noodles:

Sesame Sauce:

Discussions:
1) Ok not sure if you notice… the sesame sauce on the noodles (the very top picture) doesn’t look that smooth, but the sesame sauce in the “results” section looks really smooth. It’s because I used 2 different machines to grind the sesame. The Coarse one, I used a chopper/grinder to grind the sesame. Of course it didn’t work that well. For the fine and smoothe sesame sauce, I used a coffee grinder to grind the sesame. It worked REALLY well. I didn’t even need to strain. So, if you have a coffee grinder, ues it!

2) You can use the sesame sauce for other stuff too! Like for shabu shabu or salad.

3) My co-worker substituted sesame with peanut butter, and it worked well!!! Ok of course, do NOT grind the peanut butter… just mix the peanut butter with sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce.